Students’ unions of Wakching village, Wakching town and Wakching Chingla village have opposed the proposed diversion of two-lane highway (SARDP-NE) Merangkong-Tamlu- Mon road alignment at 58 km to 63 km near Wakching and urged chief minister Neiphiu Rio, deputy chief minister Y Patton, legislators and public leaders from the Land of Angh to save Wakching area from “deep social isolation”.
In a joint statement, Wakching Town Students’ Union president Chingak Konyak, Wakching Students’ Union president Methwang Konyak and Wakching Chingla Students’ Union president Chingjei Konyak explained that Wakching was the cradle of education for the Konyaks, besides being a historical place for the Nagas. They reasoned that the proposed diversion would affect many Central and State government educational institutions, including Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya where students from all over Nagaland pursued education as it would be deprived from road connectivity.
The three leaders claimed that the upcoming Model Science College under Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan, which would be the only science college in the district, too would be affected, along with Wakching Government High School that was established in 1958 as the first high school on Konyak soil.
Government offices like SDO (civil), BDO, SDEO, CDPO and PWD SDO too would be affected, they added.
The leaders pointed out that the proposed diversion would affect eight villages – Wakching, Wakching Chingla, Lampong Wakching, Wanching, Wanching Yongmuoh, Chingphoi, Chindang and Shiyong – and administrative headquarters Wakching.
The organisations also urged the State government to carefully analyse the proposal as NHIDCL had cited various reasons.
They claimed that in the first meeting held at Mon deputy commissioner’s office on July 9 this year, NHIDCL general manager Arun Kumar had stated that finance was not the only problem. He reportedly said gradient of the road at Wakching was high and thus did not fulfil the highway criteria.
But, public leaders of Wakching area challenged NHIDCL in the meeting at chief secretary’s office on August 28 and urged the State government to re-check the gradient through technical experts.
And so in the meeting held in presence of the chief Minister on September 27, NHIDCL changed its earlier vision and citied financial constraint as the reason for diversion, they stated.
According to the students’ bodies, the difference between the existing road and proposed diversion was 8 km, but 90% of earth work was already complete in the current alignment of the road. Therefore, citing of financial constraint was just an excuse, they alleged.
The students’ bodies asked the State government to push for retaining the existing road alignment, instead of listening to NHIDCL.
They reasoned that, if the portion of 13 km of road was not included in the highway, the State government would then be forced to declare it as PWD road when the State’s coffer was almost empty.
With the State’s deficit running to Rs 1657.88 crore, it would be a blunder to take extra burden, they added.